Twenty Years. TWENTY YEARS.

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

A terrific piece by my BNR colleague Peter Daou:

I've probably spent as much time analyzing and writing about coverage of Hillary as anyone in politics. But this video of Hillary being interviewed on CNN in 1996 really stunned me. Seeing the identical questions about her honesty, asked with the same accusatory tone, hit home.

There's no way to watch the clip below without appreciating how long Hillary's integrity has been under attack.

Read this quote: "Once again you find yourself mired down in the credibility cloud … a new CNN poll shows that most Americans don't think you're telling the truth."

...My colleague Melissa McEwan offers a profound insight:

The thing we have to understand about these interviews is that they're not about trying to establish facts about Hillary's fundamental truthfulness or integrity. They're about an attempt to hurt her on camera and capture her pain. The persistent exploration of negative feelings toward Hillary is about shaming her, about replicating the visceral responses many people have to women seeking power.

...The national media, however, are singularly focused on presenting a distorted caricature of Hillary. What they fail to admit is that in asking questions about Hillary's honesty with such singular focus, they are creating the very misperceptions they're reporting on. It's a vicious loop that they exploit with unnerving skill.

Please, head on over and read the whole thing.

This is the truth of it: The media is acting as stand-in to people who look at her and think: How dare she. Who does she think she is? They are not on a crusade to extract some truth about Hillary Clinton's character. They are amplifying reflexive, misogynist distrust of ambitious women.